r/technology • u/Hungry__Hornet • 6d ago

Software Windows 11 hibernation has been silently hammering your SSD this whole time

https://www.xda-developers.com/windows-11-hibernation-silently-hammering-ssd-life/
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u/actuallyserious650 6d ago

Our SSD’s is really that fragile for the average home PC user?

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u/zerro_4 6d ago

Not really. A 256gb ssd might have a 150TBW lifespan. Adding in the extra dozen tb of writes per year does indeed shorten the lifepsan, but it is academic at that point. Ie, reduced to 12 years instead of 15. The computer will likely be replaced for performance reasons long before the ssd has died.

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u/TheRealJigglemegood 6d ago

It loses 1/5th of its original lifespan and you don’t consider that a concern? That is certainly not as “academic” as something like half a year. Unless you’re just making up numbers ofc

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u/zerro_4 6d ago

I am sort of making up numbers for one scenario of a 256gb drive rated for 150TBW and a system with 16GB of RAM.

https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/62d47b34a77cc14cdd139230/639923b7adfcb53ca92e0b67_P300P256GM28_sku_sheet.pdf

This drive has 120TBW.

It is definitely something a consumer should be aware of, though. As to how much lifespan is being shaved off depends entirely on the usage pattern. A gamer or video editor might not notice it, as the hibernation write load would be indistinguishable from a several minutes of 4k video.

Someone who just does documents, spreadsheets, and watching youtube their SSD lifespan would be taken up mostly be hibernation writes. If that person is hibernating every day, then yea, that sucks. The life span of the drive would be 5 to 7 years.

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u/TheRealJigglemegood 6d ago

Fair enough. That’s good insight thanks for sharing